Addiction | Substance Use Disorders | Treatment
Incarcerating Drug Offenders | How’s That Working?
The United States has roughly 5% of the world’s population. It has approximately 25% of it’s prison population. Nearly one half the nation’s prisoners are serving time for drug related crimes. Clearly something’s about incarcerating drug offenders isn’t working. Thanks to new brain and addiction-related research of the recent 10-15 years, it’s now understood that…
Read MoreAcceptance is… well, Acceptance | Recovery from Addiction | SHD
Are you in recovery from addiction or SHD (secondhand drinking | drugging)? Likely, then, you have heard these sorts of phrases: “Live and Let Live,” “Let It Go,” “…to accept the things I cannot change.” Don’t you hate when people try to make something that is darn near impossible to define, let alone do, seem…
Read MoreTalking About Addiction | Let’s Make the Day Come When We Have These Sorts of Conversations
Recently I gave a talk to a group of parents of children with the chronic, often relapsing – but treatable – brain disease of addiction. I shared a bit about my own experiences with loved ones with this brain disease and about the emotional and physical health consequences I’d suffered as a result of the…
Read MoreAddiction Treatment Medications | Are They Cheating?
I was speaking at a forum recently and this question came up (it actually comes up quite often), “Aren’t these addiction treatment medications sort of like cheating?” And then the person asking the question went on to say, “I mean, in AA they say you can’t take other medications because that’s being addicted to something…
Read MoreAddiction Recovery Therapy Options
There’s a common perception that AA and NA or another 12-step program are “the” way to recover from addiction or Secondhand Drinking (in which case, the 12-step programs are Al-Anon and Nar-Anon). And let me say right off – these are wonderful programs for millions of people! But they don’t work for millions more and…
Read MoreWhy Addiction Relapse Can Be Stronger Than the Determination to Stay Clean
Addiction relapse – meaning the addict | alcoholic goes back to using drugs or alcohol – is another of the confounding aspects of this brain disease – the brain disease of addiction (aka brain disorder). Not only is the addiction relapse confounding, but equally confusing is the idea that relapse does not mean treatment failed. Really!…
Read MorePost Acute Withdrawal Syndrome | PAWS – First Survey Now Available
Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome (PAWS) is a term to describe a condition that can cause a person in recovery from drugs or alcohol addiction to relapse. James F. Davis, a Board Certified Interventionist and an expert on Post Acute Withdrawal and the Kindling Effect, shared recently on BreakingTheCycles.com his excellent article, “Why We Relapse: Post…
Read MoreHow Do You Get Someone to Stop Drinking – CRAFT – an Intervention Alternative Explained
How do you get someone to stop drinking or abusing drugs? Can you even do it? Don’t they have to hit bottom first? And where is the bottom? And if it’s your child, how do you ever walk away or set a boundary that could mean they don’t go to college in the fall or…
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